The present invention relates to sensor systems. In particular, the present invention relates to a system for monitoring environmental conditions.
Environment monitoring systems are commonly found in ships, buildings and other structures that must be monitored for safety and other purposes. The compartments in these structures and vessels may be monitored for obvious hazards, such as fire, flooding or noxious gases. Other compartments may need to be maintained at specific temperatures and/or humidity levels to accommodate particular goods or devices. For example, computer systems may require reduced temperatures, and perishable items may have specific humidity requirements. Generally, the monitoring system sensors generate an alarm to alert operators to a change in the status of the environment.
Generally, an environment monitoring system has a central operator interface that displays the status of the system. This requires an operator to be present at the interface, or nearby to detect an alarm signal. Other systems have the capability of sending an alarm signal to other locations, such as a fire station. One disadvantage of these systems is that access to the status of the sensors is limited to one, or a very few locations where an interface is installed.
In addition, as the building or ship ages, the monitoring system also ages. However, these structures or vessels may be subject to new regulatory requirements and building owners or ship operators may need to provide information to regulatory agencies regarding the quality of the environment within various compartments. In some cases, an older environment monitoring system may need to be replaced. Replacement of a system that includes hundreds of sensors can be extremely costly to the ship or building owner.
Therefore, there exists a need for an environment monitoring system that can augment existing systems and that can provide access to the monitoring system at a plurality of locations.
In order to overcome the deficiencies with known, conventional environment monitoring systems, an environment and hazard condition monitoring system is provided. Briefly, one embodiment of the environment monitoring system is configured to incorporate a plurality of preexisting, or pre-installed sensors. The environment monitoring system includes sensor agents that communicate with the preexisting sensors and with other sensor agents and portable user interfaces or devices. The present invention can augment existing environment monitoring systems to increase the capabilities and functional features of the existing system, thereby eliminating the need for a costly, wholesale replacement.
More specifically, one embodiment of the present invention employs at least one user interface and a plurality of sensor agents. The sensor agents are structured to communicate with a plurality of preexisting sensors and with the user interface. One feature of the present invention is that the sensor agents can communicate with each other, as well as with portable devices that can be carried by building maintenance people or shipboard operators.
One envisioned embodiment of the environment monitoring system of the present invention can be installed on a ship. One feature of the system is that if the user interface becomes inaccessible during an emergency, the environment monitoring system can be accessed by portable user interfaces, which can access sensor data throughout the ship by communicating with the sensor agents.